A brain scanner is being turned into a diagnostic tool that could predict how a patient with a neurological or psychiatric condition will fare, and which treatment will work best for them. The problem is that current brain scans—MRI, PET, EEG—show anatomy or blood flow, but not how neurons are actually firing and communicating. Without that direct measure of neuronal function, doctors often rely on trial and error when choosing treatments for conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, or depression. This centre aims to close that gap by combining advanced imaging with mathematical models of neural activity, turning raw scan data into quantitative biomarkers of brain function. If successful, the approach could transform clinical decision-making. Instead of a generic diagnosis, a patient might receive a personalised prognosis and a therapy tailored to their specific neural dysfunction. The centre’s location opposite the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery means new methods can be tested directly on patients. The work is fundamentally about building the tools to make neuroimaging a precision instrument for psychiatry and neurology—much as blood tests are for general medicine.
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Our vision is to deliver clinically-transformative applications of neuroimaging that provide computationally-derived biomarkers for personalised prognosis and treatment planning. We investigate how the human brain functions in health and disease and how this knowledge can inform prognoses in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. By integrating cutting-edge neuroimaging technologies with neuronal and behavioural modelling, we seek to establish non-invasive quantitative measures of neuronal function that can be used to identify pathophysiology, deliver personalised prognoses, and develop or assess therapeutic interventions. Our strategy combines two key elements that are unique to our location, staff and facilities. First, we bring together internationally-renowned expertise in neuroimaging, biophysical modelling, cognitive, computational, mathematical and clinical neuroscience. Second, we create an environment that fosters interactions between those asking key neurobiological questions and those developing methods and theories that make these questions tractable. Our clinical focus reflects a long-standing commitment to developing neuroimaging methods that provide mechanistic explanations of how the human brain supports sensory, motor and cognitive functions in health, how these mechanisms are affected by disease, and how they respond to therapeutic interventions. We are in a unique position to conduct this work given our our location opposite the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
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